New Books Network

About Dexter Fergie

Dexter Fergie is a doctoral student in US and global history at Northwestern University. His research examines the history of ideas, infrastructure, and international organizations.

NBN Episodes hosted by Dexter:

History April 8, 2021

A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations

Colonial Era to the Present

Christopher R. Dietrich

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
The field of US foreign-relations history is not what it used to be, and that’s a good thing. Earlier historians narrowly defined the field as diplomatic history­­ and kept vast …
History January 13, 2021

Whistleblowing Nation

The History of National Security Disclosures and the Cult of State Secrecy

Kaeten Mistry and Hannah Gurman

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
In the past decade, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden became household names. They were celebrated by many as truth-tellers who blew the whistle on governmental abuses. Yet, in the eyes …
History December 15, 2020

Ghosts of Sheridan Circle

How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet's Terror State to Justice

Alan McPherson

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
On September 21, 1976, a car bomb exploded in Washington DC, killing a former Chilean diplomat named Orlando Letelier and his American colleague Ronni Moffitt. The assassination was a cruel …
History November 13, 2020

The United States of War

A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State

David Vine

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
Since its founding, the United States has been at peace for only eleven years. Across nearly two-and-a-half centuries, that’s a lot of war. In his new book, The United States …
American Studies October 29, 2020

Dead Tree Media

Manufacturing the Newspaper in Twentieth-Century North America

Michael Stamm

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
Michael Stamm’s book Dead Tree Media: Manufacturing the Newspaper in Twentieth-Century North America (Johns Hopkins UP, 2018) begins with the simple but thought-provoking premise that, not too long ago, newspapers …
American Studies September 17, 2020

Oil Powers

A History of the US-Saudi Alliance

Victor McFarland

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is a critical feature of the modern international system. It binds the global hegemon to a region on the other side …
American Studies August 7, 2020

Just Like Us

The American Struggle to Understand Foreigners

Thomas Borstelmann

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
The American attitude towards outsiders has always been ambivalent. The United States, it is commonly said, is a nation of immigrants; today, it’s the most demographically diverse great power. But …
African Studies June 26, 2020

The Diplomacy of Decolonisation

America, Britain, and the United Nations during the Congo Crisis, 1960-1964

Alanna O’Malley

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
In the summer of 1960, the Republic of the Congo won its independence from Belgium. Only one week later, however, Belgium had already dispatched paratroopers into the country and the …
British Studies May 6, 2020

Liberalism at Large

The World According to 'The Economist'

Alexander Zevin

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
The Economist is a curious publication. It always takes a point of view (as opposed to the all-the-news-that’s-fit-to-print approach). It maintains a uniform voice (editors and writers are typically handpicked …
Communications April 27, 2020

Of Privacy and Power

The Transatlantic Struggle over Freedom and Security

Abraham Newman and Henry Farrell

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
We live in an interconnected world. People, goods, and services leap across borders like never before. Terrorist organizations, like al-Qaida, and digital platforms, like Facebook, have gone global. But, if …
American Studies April 10, 2020

Canada and the World since 1867

Asa McKercher

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
If you haven’t been able to tell by the way I pronounce the word “about,” I should probably let you know that I’m from Canada. And I have to make …
Australian and New Zealand Studies April 3, 2020

Human Rights in Twentieth-Century Australia

Jon Piccini

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
After the Second World War, an Australian diplomat was one of eight people to draft the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. And in the years that followed, Australians of many …
French Studies March 4, 2020

Mecca of Revolution

Algeria, Decolonization, and the Third World Order

Jeffrey James Byrne

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
In his brilliant, category-smashing book, Mecca of Revolution: Algeria, Decolonization, and the Third World Order (Oxford University Press, 2016), Jeffrey James Byrne places Algeria at the center of many of …
American Studies February 28, 2020

Barriers Down

How American Power and Free-Flow Policies Shaped Global Media

Diana Lemberg

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
Since the 1940s, America’s relations with the rest of the world have been guided by the idea of promoting the free flow of information. It’s an idea that seems benign …
African Studies January 15, 2020

The Colonial Politics of Global Health

France and the United Nations in Postwar Africa

Jessica Lynne Pearson

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
International organizations throw up several obstacles—their immense scale, their dry bureaucratic language—to the historian trying to piece together their past. In her book, The Colonial Politics of Global Health: France …
History November 22, 2019

Sorting Out the Mixed Economy

The Rise and Fall of Welfare and Developmental States in the Americas

Amy Offner

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
The neoliberal 1980s of austerity and privatization may appear as a break with the past—perhaps a model of government drawn up by libertarian economists. Not so, says Amy Offner in …
Intellectual History September 13, 2019

Free Enterprise

An American History

Lawrence Glickman

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
“Free enterprise” is an everyday phrase that connotes an American common sense. It appears everywhere from political speeches to pop culture. And it is so central to the idea of …
American Studies September 2, 2019

A Nation Forged by Crisis

A New American History

Jay Sexton

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
A popular myth in the American nationalist imaginary is that the country has been on a continued path of progress. Another is that the country’s history has been the self-realization …
American Studies August 20, 2019

Clashing over Commerce

A History of US Trade Policy

Douglas A. Irwin

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
Scholars of US history have treated trade policy in less than enthusiastic ways. One economic historian described tariffs as “extraordinarily uninteresting things unless related to the political events which give …
American Studies August 13, 2019

Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America

Margaret O’Mara

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
Seventy years ago, there was no Apple Campus or Googleplex. Silicon Valley itself didn’t even exist! The region was filled with sleepy towns, prune trees, and orange groves. Since then …
American Studies June 18, 2019

Worldmaking

The Art and Science of American Diplomacy

David Milne

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
There are countless ways to study the history of U.S. foreign policy. David Milne, however, makes the case that it is “often best understood” as “intellectual history.” In his innovative …
German Studies June 17, 2019

News from Germany

The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900-1945

Heidi Tworek

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
In our current moment marred by media monopolies and disinformation campaigns, it is easy to get caught up in the dizzying temporality of the news cycle and think these are …
American Studies May 28, 2019

Enduring Alliance

A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order

Timothy Sayle

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization regularly appears in newspapers and political science scholarship. Surprisingly, historians have yet to devote the attention that the organization’s history merits. Timothy A. Sayle, an …
American Studies May 23, 2019

A Telephone for the World

Iridium, Motorola, and the Making of a Global Age

Martin Collins

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
It’s easy to take for granted that one can pick up a cell phone and call someone on the other side of the planet. But, until very recently, this had …